When Service Learning puts educational research at the service of the training of teachers and of innovation in teaching: the Resolving Robots “case”

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the Service Learning Program promoted by the University of Verona (Laboratorio “Le CoSe”), within the Master Degree course in Primary Teacher Education, in order to understand how it promotes teaching, research and reflective skills in future teachers, through the implementation of educational research experiences, focused on the design, implementation, analysis and evaluation of innovative teaching interventions. To this end, in this paper we explore, with an illustrative purpose, the educational robotics project entitled “Resolving Robots”, created by a trainee (now a teacher), based on the specific needs of the context. We present the design and implementation steps, the analysis made to check its effectiveness and the critical reflections necessary to understand if and how this experience contributed to strengthening professional skills.